A message from Kevin Hart, chairman of UVA’s Department of Religious Studies:

On Wednesday (9/30), the St. Anselm Institute for Catholic Thought hosts Fr. Brendan McAnerney, O.P., a well-known iconography artist in the Byzantine tradition, for his public lecture on “Holy Icons-Holy Churches: The Sacred Art of Iconography.” All are welcome to attend his illuminating talk, which begins at 7:00pm in Minor Hall at the University of Virginia, with a light reception to follow.

Princeton University’s Index of Christian Art has prepared an excellent annotated bibliography of print and electronic resources related to early Christian art—a field that is greatly in need of further study. Check it out here.

The ever-vigilant Tommy Wasserman notes that Keith Elliott is currently compiling the third supplement to his Bibliography of Greek New Testament Manuscripts (the second edition was published by Cambridge University Press in 2000; the previous supplements were published in the journal Novum Testamentum in 2004 and 2007, respectively). He requests that he be notified of any recent editions, articles, and photographic plates at j.k.elliott@leeds.ac.uk. Please help him maintain this indispensable text-critical resource!

In what is being called the world’s largest HIV vaccine trial ever—involving more than 16,000 participants in Thailand—researchers found that people who received a series of inoculations of a prime vaccine and booster vaccine were 31 percent less likely to get HIV, compared with those on a placebo.

While experts have cautioned against overoptimism, as the vaccine was not completely effective (51 participants who were receiving it contracted HIV), it’s definitely a significant step in the fight against one of the deadliest diseases in the world. And as such, it’s still great news!